Masterpiece Cakeshop Case may set LGBT civil rights backward

Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force in 2009

The National LGBTQ Task Force was out at full strength on the steps of the Supreme Court today to rally for the court to uphold the rights of LGBT people in the lead up to the court hearing oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The case is about showing that religion should never be an acceptable reason to refuse services to anyone says the Task Force and other activists.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force described it in stark terms, “This case has the potential to roll us back more than a half-century to a time when LGBTQ people were in the closet, afraid to be ourselves. We refuse to return to those ugly days.”

Naomi Washington-Leapheart, the director of faith work at the Task Force, started the rally off in prayer calling for, “Divine interruption to these attempts to use government to exclude and punish vulnerable communities.” After which she told the crowd, “We will not stand by while our rights are eroded before our eyes! We are here to turn over these tables of discrimination! We are here fight back against bullying done in God’s name. We are here to denounce any notion of piety that compels hospitals and businesses and social service agencies to turn people away. We are here, and we won’t go back!”

Victoria Rodríguez-Roldán, the Task Force’s director of trans and disability justice, told the crowd she and the Task Force were here, not for cake, but for those that are disabled and would be at risk of discrimination if the court ruled in favor of Masterpiece. She spoke about queer homeless youth that would be at risk of increased bigotry and abuse at the hands of those in the foster care system if the court ruled in favor of Masterpiece and for the trans community that would be put at increased danger and would face even greater levels of discrimination.

During Rodríguez-Roldán’s speech, she slammed the plaintiffs and the hate group representing them — Alliance Defending Freedom — for “using God’s name, in vain, as an excuse to perpetuate bigotry and to oppress their fellow human beings. They seek to deny a fundamental promise of this republic: That everyone has the right to be who they are in the world, free of injustice, and oppression.”

Task Force Senior Policy Counsel Candace Bond-Theriault, who was an author of the SCOTUS amici curiae brief that a coalition of groups including the Task Force signed onto, also spoke to the crowd. She said, “It’s important to consider the sweeping implications that a ruling for Masterpiece Cakeshop will have for LGBTQ people of color.” She spoke about how she understands this personally, telling the crowd, “As a Black queer woman, I know that members of my community will most be harmed if the justices choose corporations over individuals and allow discrimination against protected classes to become constitutionally protected.”